TOWER — Mike Lorenz says his son, Ben, has been talking about catching a muskie for a couple years now.
“That was his goal. That's what he really wanted to do, get that first muskie,” Mike said. “I just never imagined it would happen like this.”
“Like this“ is one of those once-in-a-lifetime events that happens occasionally in the outdoors. It just happened to Ben early in life.
Mike, a part-time fishing guide whose day job is assistant chief of the Ely Police Department, had taken Ben, 9, and daughter Lena, 7, out for a day of walleye fishing on their favorite body of water, Lake Vermilion. The Tower family fishes the big lake a lot.
They were fishing Big Bay on the lake where Mike has been fishing for more than 35 years and guiding the past six years under the name Gravel Lizard Guide Service ( gravelizardguide.com ).
ADVERTISEMENT
“It was the middle of the day. We were trolling crankbaits for walleyes when Ben got a walleye on,” Mike recalled of the July 6 episode. “He was reeling it in when it became very clear that something else was on the line, too … a big muskie had decided that walleye looked tasty.”
Ben continued to pump and reel, pump and reel. Dad operated the boat and offered the advice of a sage guide. Lena was staffing the camera, taking video.
The lure was a No. 4 Salmo Hornet in crayfish color, which has relatively small treble hooks for a muskie. Ben was using a fairly stout trolling rod and a reel spooled with 18-pound test lead-core line, so the gear was up to the task. The only question was whether Ben was up to it, and if the muskie would magically hang on all the way to the boat.
“It made several big runs. ... But Ben stayed with it. He held the rod the whole time,” Mike said. “Ben was pretty quiet as the fish was coming in. Until after, then he wouldn’t stop talking about it.”
Mike grabbed the only net in the boat, an average-sized walleye net, and Ben managed to direct the muskie into the net just right.
“It only fit in about halfway, but it was headfirst and it sort of folded itself into the net,” Mike said.
That’s when Mike noticed the muskie had just a single hook in the corner of its mouth. And he noticed that the 15-inch walleye that started the whole thing was still attached to the other treble hook. It's not uncommon for a big pike or muskie to grab a walleye as it's being reeled in. But the bigger fish usually lets go quickly. And few people have seen both fish caught on the same lure simultaneously.
“It’s one of those things you can’t believe until you see it,” Mike said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mike took a very speedy measurement and the muskie was about 48 inches long, a true trophy for Ben as his first muskie. The family then quickly released the muskie, apparently unscathed.
“It was probably a little longer than 48, but I didn’t want to take any more time with it in the boat,” Mike said.
The 15-inch walleye was pretty beat up after the incident, Mike said, “but we salvaged it for dinner.”
This story was updated at 12:35 p.m. Aug. 17 to include a video. It was originally posted at 7 a.m. Aug. 17.
The Trust Project
